Servienne (LGBT)

25-Rubble

    Boom.

  Orange and red lit up the air, quickly snuffed out by smoke and ash and rocks that blew in all directions. The room erupted into chaos. The air filled with screams of horror and pain, but it hadn't registered in anyone's heart yet, not that an explosive had just gone off. "What was that? Was that a bomb?" Aaron questioned. He knew the answer, he just couldn't admit it to himself. His heart was suddenly pounding, looking to the other side of the room where he could see the walls beginning to crack. The people began shrieking and went to flee, but as they did, another tremor went through the air, fire lighting up the room. Aaron's eyes widened. "Aaron!" Noll shouted, grabbing his arm, but it meant nothing. A tremor went through the ground, another boom going off. Noll's hand was wrenched from his arm, and everything became dark as he felt his head hit the ground hard. When the black and blue splotches drained away from his eyes, they were only to be replaced by the sight of soot and fire. Aaron felt a scream of pain rise in his throat, looking down to find his thigh trapped under a large slate of rock. He feared it may have even been broken. But above all other worries, one boiled an anxiety in this veins that he could not contain as the thought suddenly dawned on him: Where was Noll?

  "N--!" He coughed harshly, doing nothing but swirling around and inhaling more ash. Aaron couldn't breathe; he couldn't think; he could barely feel; his body must have been high on adrenaline because, on top of his heart pounding in his ears, he felt overwhelmed with nausea. How do you describe shock so thoroughly as to make the image of rumbling rocks quaking through your bones, of fear striking through your mind like lightning? There was no way to completely capture the fear, the terror, the panic. He felt so sick.

  Forcing himself to sit up, Aaron immediately collapsed back down, his arms trembling beneath him, ripped up with gashes from glass, rock, and metal. His ears rang so that even his own panting sounded nonexistent and the screams from the distance muffled. From the corner of his eyes, he could see that the entire left side of the building had collapsed, and everything was either up in flames or crumbling around him, leaving the late afternoon sky glooming down at him as it filled with smoke. He groaned, blinking away the tears of pain that filled his eyes. "Noll..." He whimpered, unable to discern the dots in his vision from the ash and falling debris around him. It was all distorted. But at least his hearing was beginning to return.

  "Aaron!" A swell of relief that forced a sob from him washed over Aaron as Noll's voice rang in the air, clear as a bell. "Aaron, where are you? Shit, I'm coming, don't worry."

  Peoples screams still sounded around him and the roaring of the flames was still prominent, but it all felt drowned out and muted. He didn't want his hearing for anything else but to hear Noll, letting Aaron know that he was okay; Noll's voice was the only one he let through. "Noll, p--please," He called. In front of him, the big chunks of wood that had been blocking him in were lifted, and as they were discarded to the side, Aaron felt the tears running over his cheeks as Noll rushed to his side, propping him up. "Aaron, your leg... I'll get it out, just, hey, it's okay," Noll said, clearly panicking a little, but he tried to remain calm for Aaron's sake, wiping the tears from his eyes. Aaron took his hand, and he only just realized how much he was personally trembling. They both were.

  "Where... Is my father alright? Genia? My uncle, are they, are they all okay?" He was sure his voice was next to nothing with the ash making his throat dry and irritated, but Noll understood through the raspiness. "I don't know. I don't, I just..." Noll trailed off, and Aaron watched as tears welled up in the man's eyes. "I thought you might be--there's so many dead, I thought you--" Noll looked away, biting his lip hard to hold the tears back. Aaron pressed his brows together, reaching up despite his bleeding arms and taking Noll's face gently. "Noll, I'm okay, you don't have to be afraid anymore," He assured, grinning playfully. "I can't die that easy." Noll let out a breathy laugh, leaning down and kissing Aaron sweetly. He drew back, flicking his green eyes up to Aaron's. "Neither can I. Come on, I'll get your leg out." Noll drew away, crawling out of the small space Aaron was stuck in to get to the other side of the slate on his leg. As he did so, Aaron saw past his little space of debris to the rest of the manor. All he could see was more debris and people trapped beneath the rubble, but he suspected that some of them might have been corpses. It was horrible, and he felt even more sick to his stomach. It wasn't just the adrenaline.